FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a traditional payment mechanism. More particularly, it is seen that when a cardholder goes into a shop and makes a purchase with a payment card (e.g., a credit card or a debit card) the process may proceed as follows: (1) the cardholder hands over the card and signs for the purchase or enters his/her personal identification number (“PIN”) at the point of sale terminal; (2) authorization for the transaction is given by the card issuer bank (if the value of the transaction is above a pre-agreed floor limit); (3) transaction details of the payment are transmitted to the merchant acquiring bank; (4) clearing and settlement of the transaction is made by the payment card scheme between the merchant acquirer bank and the card issuer bank; (5) cardholder's account is debited; (6) merchant's account is credited; (7) account balance and transaction details are transmitted to the merchant; and (8) cardholder receives account statement.
In another transaction mechanism, an automated clearing house (“ACH”) process of the type shown in FIG. 2 may be utilized.
Among those benefits and improvements that have been disclosed, other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying figures. The figures constitute a part of this specification and include illustrative embodiments of the present invention and illustrate various objects and features thereof.